Was just browsing the Intel ARK and noticed the Xeon L3406. It doesn't have an on-package GPU like other Clarkdales and it has a lower clock but the rated TDP is pretty amazing. I wonder how actual power consumption is on this chip.

Not sure whether I'm not wasting money on the Xeon chips. Would I really get that much Power saving over the i3/i5? Should money not be spent on a more powerful CPU (in case it is needed) IF the idle power useage is the same across all four CPU's?

Not sure whether I'm not wasting money on the Xeon chips. Would I really get that much Power saving over the i3/i5? Should money not be spent on a more powerful CPU (in case it is needed) IF the idle power useage is the same across all four CPU's?

Sure. I think this has got do with with maximum power draw. Under certain conditions/environments you might not want to draw more than a certain amount of power. If you want to pay for that, then go ahead and do so, otherwise, you are probably wasting your money.

Afaik the idle power draw of <30W can be achieved with the i3-540 CPU as well.

I just got a Xeon L3426 running. It's rated at 45W TDP. I don't have any power readings yet. Rate at 1.87Ghz, it idles at 1.2GHz and boosts to 3.2GHz as needed. I like the fact that I can use ECC memory, which I wouldn't be able to do with an i-series.

I just got a Xeon L3426 running. It's rated at 45W TDP. I don't have any power readings yet. Rate at 1.87Ghz, it idles at 1.2GHz and boosts to 3.2GHz as needed. I like the fact that I can use ECC memory, which I wouldn't be able to do with an i-series.

Nice, quicksilver. If you could give us some power readings at some point that'd be nice, and maybe some more info on the setup you've got running?

I've been using an L3426 for the past few months, and am thinking of building a new machine using the L3406. However, I just learned that the L3406 doesn't support Registered ECC memory, according to the Intel datasheet (sorry, can't post URLs yet; it's easy to find). Since I already am using 4 2GB Registered modules with the L3426, I may have to change my plan...

Can anyone confirm that the L3406 does indeed only support unbuffered ECC modules?

First post, by the way. Been following this forum for years, and have learned much valuable information!

The L3406 supports only unbuffered ECC memory, not registered ECC memory, as far as I can tell. Some Japanese retailers list this caveat in the product description. Right now, I would be unable to use this CPU with my registered ECC RAM (it's working perfectly with the L3426).

Well the plan for the build was a 150w picopsu, lowest power cpu i can find and a 5750 go green. (with motherboard and memory, ssd etc). 30W is the lowest i've found by a loooong way. Much better than 73W for the core i5.

Fair play, I can concede when I'm wrong. I was always under the impression that voltage dictated the majority of the power consumption, with clock speed not having much of an effect but it would appear I'm wrong.

When I built the system I have tried it with pico-psu + 120 watt adapter, but it did not always start reliably. Sometimes when the insurge of current was big at start, even with the drives starting one by one, it would shut down. When it did start though had drawn about 48 watts with 4 drives only.

Currently I use Ubuntu 10.10 server as OS. The 10.04 LTS has some issues with its e1000e driver and the Intel 82574L NICs onboard. The 10.10 has this fixed. The two gigabit NIC are teamed up to the same switch, there is a separate 100Mbit NIC for the IPMI interface onboard also powered up.

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